Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I am on cloud nine today, for a lot of reasons, and life is a big Easter bunch of wonderfulness.

I was struck by the difference between my own feelings and the rest of the world's when I got onto Figment today and saw their Easter wishes--for Easter bunnies and candy and pastels and pretty things. It didn't offend me, because it's a writing website, not a Church organization, and besides, a lot of people celebrate Easter, but it definitely struck me.

It's amazing, this high holy holiday of ours. All through Lent I've kind of been lost in a muddle, with lots of anxiety about the future and the present, so that life felt Lenten even when I wasn't focusing on penance. It's been a long winter. The sun never came out. Homework grew mountainous, fasting made me grumpy, prayer felt forced, and Easter would never come.

Last night during the Easter vigil (when Easter did come, after all!), I was so struck, so moved, by an abundance of feeling that I can't describe. I was feeling something for the first time in weeks, and it was beautiful and painful, and in the candlelight and the knowledge that when I feel dead and bored with life, there will be a resurrection, I was able to truly say, "Alleluia, Alleluia!"

I'm going to still a quote from a friend of mine, because I don't think he'll mind, and because, you know, it's kinda unbearably beautiful:

The Easter Vigil is one of those miraculous glorious magnificent occurrences that makes water seem more wet, that makes walls seem more solid, and makes romance take on an even more brilliant shade of romantic. That is, life seems more real, more filled, more glorious, for Jesus Christ has risen.

Today, life is very, very beautiful. Everything good has arrived--color and sunshine, good food and smiles. Life is back, and it reminds me that my God is a God of life. 

A very happy Easter to all of you. :) 

Girls with Gumption

As I've been rewriting TDS, I've been taking stock of my female characters. I'm pleased that, to a large degree, they're different people and don't fall into any sort of stereotype. Because girls are not stereotypical.

Erin, I think, is certainly not a typical heroine. While posting my first draft on Figment, I was pretty pleasantly surprised by readers' reactions to her. Honestly, I wondered if I should expect complaints along the lines of "she's not strong enough" or "she's too vulnerable". But overall, people seemed to like dipping into the mind of an atypical heroine, who, I believe, is a pretty normal girl.

This led me to a question--where are the feminine heroines? 

The standard YA heroine now (though I'm not sure I can classify TDS as YA, as it deals with a much older protagonist) is independent, aggressive, and confident. She needs no one. She's a Katniss, an Arya, an Alianne. She knows what she wants and is fearless about getting it.

And that is great. We need girls like that, because books should be about real characters. We need to show girls who can be leaders, who are tough and gutsy. However, not all girls are that. We can't embrace only this kind of heroine and say to girls, "This is what you must be to be a woman".

Why can't girls be real and brave and feminine all at the same time? Do we equate being womanly with being weak? A writer friend made the comment to me some months ago: "[A heroine] can wear a dress, but she can't enjoy it". She can lead a kingdom, but she can't yearn for a king at her side.

I know all sorts of girls--loud girls and quiet girls, girls who wear sweatpants and girls who prefer summer dresses but feel at home at a table of ten boys.

Shouldn't our heroines be like that?

They should be real girls--funny and girly and confused and vulnerable and hopeful and brave.